Hornbill- Class 11th

1. THE LABURNUM TOP –
TED HUGHES
Presented by Shivani
Singh
APS- Delhi Cantt.

2. Theme:
◦Life is marked by fluctuations.
◦The Laburnum Top" is a poem about the cycle of life.
◦There is exchange of energy amongst all living beings.

3. The laburnum top is silent, quite still
In the afternoon yellow September sunlight.
A few leaves yellowing, all its seeds fallen

4. ◦In the first stanza, with a description of a tree in
autumn, the poet wants to point out towards the
cyclic nature of life.
◦The tree has been described as absolutely quiet and
motionless.
◦It is autumn season and some of its leaves are turning
yellow, and its seeds have fallen. This represents one
life fading and another, in the form of the seeds,
about to begin.

5. Poetic devices
◦Alliteration:
◦1. silent… still
◦2. September sunlight

6. Till the goldfinch comes, with a twitching chirrup
A suddenness, a startlement, at a branch end.
The silence is broken with the arrival of a little singing bird.
She has returned to feed her fledglings. It makes a jerky chirpy
sound sitting at the end of the branch of the tree.
The mother’s arrival creates a stir and noise that disturbs and
startles the silence spread in the atmosphere.
Her little ones are there in the nest.

7. Then sleek as a lizard, and alert and abrupt,
She enters the thickness, and a machine starts up
Of chitterings, and a tremor of wings, and trillings
The whole tree trembles and thrills.
a. Sleek- smooth
b. Abrupt- sudden
c. Thickness- foliage of leaves and twigs
d. Chitterings- noises made by the birds, like twitter, chirps,
chirrups
e. Tremble- shake violently
f. Thrills- feelings of enjoyable excitement.
g. Trillings- sharp, high- pitched repeated notes made by
birds.

8. Device Word Meaning
Simile as sleek as a lizard
Metaphor
Personification
Machine
The whole tree
trembles and thrills

9.  The bird’s movement is as smooth as that of a lizard’s.
 She is also very cautious and swift . She doesn't want any
predators to harm her babies.
 She enters the thick foliage of leaves and twigs.
 As soon as she is inside the tree, near the nest, there is activity
and clamour.
 The nest is compared to a machine. The chicks make noise
and movement with the flapping of their wings.
 The excitement amongst the chicks is such that the entire tre
seems to shake and stir

10. It is the engine of her family.
She stokes it full, then flirts out to a branch- end.
Showing her barred face identity mask.
1. Stokes- to add fuel like coal to provide energy
2. Flirt- to move about playfully, casually
3. Barred – having lines
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

11. Poetic devices:
Device Word/ phrase Meaning
metaphor Engine of her family The engine provides energy to a machine.
Similarly, the goldfinch, being the mother,
sustains her family.
The noises and the movements too depict the
similarity.
Transferred
epithet
Barred face identity
mask
The laburnum tree has flowers that fall like
bars and when the bird sits behind the flowers,
the shadow on her face looks like she is
wearing a mask that has bars on it. So, barred
– is actually an adjective for the flowers and
has been transferred from there and applied
to the bird.

12.  The bird provides food/ fuel to the family and stokes it full.
 The bird is compared to the engine as she is the feeder of her
family. As a machine cannot work without an engine, her family
can’t last without her.
 Then after she has completed her job, she moves playfully to the
end of the branch.
 While she is sitting there, the shadows of the longitudinal
bunches of flowers fall upon her face.
 The bird seems to be wearing a mask and gives her a unique
identity.

13. Then with eerie delicate whistle- chirrup whisperings
She launches away, towards the infinite,
And the laburnum subsides to empty.
Eerie- weird, strange, unfamiliar
Delicate- soft
Whistle- gentle whisper like the chirping of the bird
Subsides- diminishes
Infinite- open sky

15. After reaching the end of the branch, the bird makes a sweet chirping
sound just like whispering and flies away towards the infinite sky.
It again makes the Laburnum tree silent and death-like.

17. Thankyou!